Tim Holtz Tags of 2015 – December

Hello!  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season.  It’s hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone and another year is almost over!

I love Tim’s tag for this month – it’s gorgeous!

12 tags of 2015 – december

This is my version:

 

I really love the look of the stenciled pattern on the burlap and couldn’t wait to try it myself.  The Flourish layering stencil is one of my favorites, but I decided to use another favorite, the Gothic layering stencil.  Luckily, it turned out great on the first try .  Vintage Photo distress ink was used on the edges (after photo was taken).

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to put on my tag – a wreath, a poinsettia, or something else.  One of my Christmas gifts was the Crazy Birds stamp set – woohoo!  I admit I didn’t care for those crazy birds at first, but after seeing all of the cute and creative ways these stamps have been used, I was hooked!  I decided to make a wreath after all and decorate it with a Crazy Bird.

I don’t have the punches that Tim used to make his wreath, but I have a few die sets that have twigs and holly, etc.  I started with a wreath die and then added the other pieces, but added more after taking the pic because it wasn’t full enough.  I ended up using scraps from my stash of various greens and blue-greens.   I also covered some of the paper with Frosted Film to cut out the pieces, and sometimes I positioned the die so that only part of it was on the Frosted Film.  I inked the twigs as best I could with Vintage Photo distress ink. 

 

After choosing the bird I wanted to use, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to color him.  I used distress inks and made a red version, but thought it would be too much red.  Then I made a blue version, and he was cute, but not right.  I decided he needed to be fancier for the holiday season and stamped the image onto one of the new Idea-ology Deco sheets that I was lucky enough to find this season (I love this stuff – the colors are pretty and subtle compared to other similar products I have -plus it’s adhesive-backed)!!  I hate wasting such precious product as this, but using black StazOn ink left a very light impression.  I switched to my Ranger Archival Ink and then covered with clear embossing powder and that worked great.  I used the Antique Silver deco sheet for his wing.  I wanted to give him a Santa hat, but don’t have any of the accessory stamps for this set, so I used a die set I have that’s the appropriate size.  I used the Antique Silver deco sheet for the fur on his hat.

 

Although I thought he looked cute with just a hat, I decided to make him into a Santa bird.  For his mustache and beard, once again I used the Antique Silver deco sheet but covered it with Frosted Film before cutting (did I mention I love Frosted Film???).  This way it matched the rest of the glitter on the bird, but toned down the color – I like how it turned out.  As a finishing touch, I made some eyeglasses for him using foil cardstock.  First I made a gold pair and thought I would like silver better, but in the end I did like the gold better.  I think being dressed as Santa agrees with him – he doesn’t look so frantic, does he??  Merry Christmas, little Crazy Bird 🙂

 

I love the Bow-Tied Sizzlits die, but don’t have it, so I used my envelope punch board to make my bow.  There are several tutorials on YouTube on how to do this and I watched a few and then made my own adjustments.  After that, I used the splatter brush with gesso to add to the wreath and bow and then it was time to finish up the wreath.  I had to tweak the wreath and fluff it up after adhering it to the tag and adding the Crazy Bird.  I don’t know what happened, but it was uneven.  It’s still not perfect, but at a certain point you have to stop or keep going and make it worse, and I opted to stop.  I don’t have the jingle bell brads – I think that was the one thing I really wanted to find this season, but they evidently grew wings and flew off of the shelves everywhere.  I had some red dots in my stash for the holly berries and the final thing I added here and there was Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

I added “Holly Jolly Santa”  from the Chit Chat Seasonal stickers, because that’s what I had on hand.  Next I added a star and a plain red ribbon with Vintage Photo distress ink.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by – feel free to leave comments and Happy New Year!!